Cruelty Scorned

Die Entführung aus dem Serail -
reviewed byROBERT ANDERSON

'... a final curtain meriting maximum applause.'

Free of the Catholic Church or at least its Salzburg archbishop, Mozart turned with relish
to Islam as incarnate in both the spiteful Osmin and the finally magnanimous Selim, who had
begun life as a Christian but been driven from his homeland by an even more thoroughgoing
Christian. The plot depends initially on the prevalence of pirates in the Mediterranean and
for its fascination on the modish cultivation of things Turkish now that their presence at
the gates of Vienna was all but a century in the past. So Mozart has cymbals and bass drum
crashing in the best manner of janissaries at their music, while the triangle tinkles the
harim's approval.